MoneyGram International has announced a partnership with Stellar Foundation for processing of settlements in USDC as it continues its love affair with blockchain and crypto as well.
Users of the platform would be able to send and receive payments in USDC and also convert them into fiat as well which would not only help to streamline the payments process but also make it much faster as well. This is not the first foray of MoneyGram into the crypto industry as it had tied up with Ripple in 2019 to process cross-border payments in the US. But that partnership did not last long as the SEC came down hard on Ripple as it believed it to be a security, a battle that has been going on between the SEC and Ripple since then with no end in sight.
“As crypto and digital currencies rise in prominence, we’re especially optimistic about the potential of stablecoins as a method to streamline cross-border payments,” said Alex Holmes, chairman, and CEO of MoneyGram.
MoneyGram has integrated the wallets that support Stellar onto its platform so that the wallet holders would be able to use the payments platform. It is also working on ensuring near real-time settlements for payments in USDC with United Texas Bank acting as the settlement bank and the challenge would be to keep this offering within the regulatory framework. This partnership is expected to come into force in select jurisdictions by the end of 2021 with the expansion planned for 2022. The companies would not want to rub the regulators in any of the regions the wrong way and would be careful in that aspect. Any kind of payment system built around crypto has come under increasing scrutiny in recent times from the authorities in various countries with some of them choosing to shut down such systems.
This is why the companies would be careful to not rub the authorities the wrong way and it is this aspect that is likely to take a lot of time as far as expansion of the services is concerned. MoneyGram would be wiser with the experience that it had gained during the issue with Ripple and hence it is reported that it has now structured it in a way that would be more in conformance with the regulatory framework in many countries.
